Glitter to ask for amnesty
2007-09-06 12:06
Hanoi - British pop singer Gary Glitter, jailed in Vietnam for child molestation, will ask the communist government to free him later this month in an amnesty, his lawyer said on Thursday.
The disgraced 1970s pop star has been behind bars since late 2005 and was sentenced to three years' jail in March 2006 for committing obscene acts with two girls, then aged 11 and 12, in a southern Vietnamese resort town.
"I hope Glitter will be given amnesty later this month to mark national day on September 2," Glitter's lawyer Le Thanh Kinh told AFP.
"Glitter's case will be considered and sent to the Central Amnesty Council, and I think he will be on the list (of people to be granted amnesty)."
The 63-year-old faded pop star, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, received a three-month term reduction in February to mark the traditional Tet lunar new year, moving his official release date forward to August 2008.
Vietnam's President Nguyen Minh Triet said this week some prisoners will be amnestied by the central government to mark national day, after several provinces amnestied inmates last week, state media reported.
To be eligible, prisoners must show they have made "good progress in re-education" and must have served at least half of their terms.
By the end of this month, the lawyer said, Glitter will have served two thirds of his sentence, including pre-trial detention, and would potentially qualify for early release.
Child pornography
"He has obeyed prison rules and has compensated the victims," Kinh told AFP. "I really think he may be freed later this month."
Glitter, a former "glam rocker" once famed in Britain for his flamboyant bouffant wigs and silver jumpsuits, had several hits in the 1970s including I'm The Leader Of The Gang (I Am!) and Do You Wanna Touch Me?
He fell from grace when a British court jailed him in 1999 for possession of child pornography. He served half of a four-month term and then left Britain.
Glitter lived in several other countries including Cambodia, where he was pursued by the British media, and from where he was expelled in 2002.
He then moved to Vung Tau, a Vietnamese beachside and oil industry town with three Vietnamese prostitutes he had met in Cambodia and who helped him procure children for sex, according to prosecutors at his trial.
He was arrested at Ho Chi Minh City airport in November 2005 as he tried to leave Vietnam. After his arrest, Glitter, who has denied the charges, paid $2 000 in compensation to the family of each victim.
He was not charged with child rape, which carries the death penalty.